Stop 31 Queens Way, Windsor

Stop 31 on route 5 and 64 is located in the middle of Queens Way.

The tram stop consisting of two narrow strips of concrete linked by a pedestrian crossing.

And the only connection to the rest of the world being a single flight of stairs to the Upton Road overpass.

The tram stop opened in 1969 as part of the St Kilda Junction project, which saw 2 kilometres of tram track along Wellington Street relocated to the current grade separated alignment at a cost of $458,000.

Stop 33 Hornby Street/Dandenong Road, Windsor

Only a short distance away on route 5 and 64 is another tram stop only accessed via steps.

Again the tram stop is just two narrow concrete strips, linked by a pedestrian crossing.

A pedestrian bridge crosses the eight lanes of Dandenong Road, with two flights of steps connecting it to the tram stop.

Agitation for a safe crossing location of Dandenong Road between Hornby and Westbury streets commenced in the 1970s, with local member D. G. Elliot raising the issue in parliament in 1973.

The current three span, 59 metres long by 1.8 metres wide prestressed and reinforced concrete beam bridge was completed in 1976 by the Country Roads Board as part of the ‘grade-separated crossings to serve schools’ program.

Stop 63 Deakin University/Burwood Highway, Burwood

The outer end of the route 75 runs in the middle of Burwood Highway, and outside the Deakin University campus in Burwood is an inaccessible platform tram stop.

A pedestrian crossing links the citybound and outbound platform stops.

But the only way out is via the pedestrian underpass.

Accessed via a single narrow flight of steps.

Leading to a thankfully well lit underpass.

The northern end entering the Deakin University campus.

And the southern end disappearing into a small park.

The pedestrian underpass opened in 1978 as part of the East Burwood tramway extension from Warrigal Road to Middleborough Road, the remainder of the tram stops having been provided with a pedestrian crossing for access.

By 2005 the underpass was described as dirty and poorly-lit.

Whitehorse Leader
Move for safe crossing
20/04/2005
Jan Harkin

Students are dangerously dodging Burwood Highway traffic to avoid a dirty, poorly-lit underpass near a tram stop outside Deakin University, Burwood state Labor MP Bob Stensholt says.

“If you stand there at four o’clock and watch the students, they come across the road like Brown’s cows,” Mr Stensholt said.

Mr Stensholt said the long-term plan was for a superstop with an enhanced pedestrian crossing and lights although that would not happen before 2007.

But a meeting of university, VicRoads and Yarra Trams representatives has come up with short-term measures to improve pedestrian safety.

Yarra Trams will upgrade the stop with extra safety rails and VicRoads will tackle the underpass.

“They are going to extend the railings as a temporary measure and put some signage on to tell people to be careful and hopefully put in more lighting,” Mr Stensholt said.

But in the years since a ‘enhanced pedestrian crossing’ has never happened – but the current pair of ‘accessible’ platforms were provided in May 2007.

Grade separated – but thankfully accessible

On route 70 there are three grade separated tram stops serving the spots precinct, but thankfully all are accessible.

Stop 7A William Barak Bridge/Melbourne Park has steps and a lift.

Stop 7B Rod Laver Arena/MCG Gates 1-3 has a loooong ramp to each platform.

And stop 7C 7C-MCG Gates 4-7/John Cain Arena has stairs and lifts.

All three tram stops opened in 1999 as part of the rerouting of route 70 trams onto a new reserved track to the Exhibition Street extension, freeing up the previous route via Swan Street and Batman Avenue to make way for the Federation Square project.

And since removed

Stop 14 on St Kilda Road at the Arts Centre once had a set of stairs connecting it to the City Road underpass – opened in 1971 it was replaced by the current ground level tram stop in 2008.

Footnote: close, but not quite on route 59

Route 59 has a number of tram stops beside the Tullamarine Freeway.

A footbridge crosses the freeway at each tram stop.

But the tram stops themselves are not connected – access is via a pedestrian crossing.

St Kilda Junction

The St Kilda Junction tram stop is surrounded by cars.

Served by a maze of pedestrian underpasses.

Running beneath the surrounding roads.

But thankfully there are no steps – just steep ramps.

And there is one ground level access route – this dark footpath between overgrown trees.

Leading to a pedestrian crossing at the Punt Road / St Kilda Road traffic lights.

Google Street View

And two aborted proposals

Early plans for the Metro Tunnel featured direct access between trams and trains on Royal Parade at Parkville station.

As well as the Domain Interchange tram stop on St Kilda Road as Domain station.

But direct tram stop access at Parkville station has been dropped from the current plans.

But thankfully at the renamed Anzac station, plans show the main station entrance is connected to the tram stop.

With a total of three station entrances – one either side of St Kilda Road, and a third between the tram tracks, with a large atrium looking down on the station concourse below.

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That is something hard to believe while approaching by car.

Or driving through the underpasses.

And especially so when waiting for a tram.

But the 1954 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme proposed a sea of flyovers that puts the current mess to shame.

See the difference?

The back story

St Kilda Junction originally had eight streets meeting in the middle:

• Punt Road
• Nelson Street
• Wellington Street (with trams)
• High Street (with trams)
• Barkly Street
• Fitzroy Street (with trams)
• Queens Road
• St Kilda Road (with trams)

But with the growth in motor vehicle traffic following World War II, the 1954 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme proposed a major revamp of the intersection.

St Kilda Junction

In any proposal for improving road communications to the southern suburbs, it is impossible to avoid concentrating a considerable volume of traffic at St. Kilda Junction and this junction becomes the most important in the suburban area.

It is estimated that when the city grows to 2,500,000, nearly 120,000 vehicles will pass through this junction in 12 hours. Much of this will be worker traffic to and from the southern suburbs, where car ownership is high. This means that peak hour traffic will be very heavy.

At some stage grade separation of the traffic will be necessary at this point and reservations have been made to allow for this. The type of intersection which will be necessary, and for which the reservations provide, is shown in diagram 29. The first stage should be the construction of the round-about at surface level, for this would immediately improve conditions. When this proves inadequate the grade separation proposals can then be constructed.

As well as massive expansion of the approach roads.

Route 23 follows Dandenong Road, which is already 198 feet wide except between Glenferrie Road, Malvern, and Burke Road, Caulfield, where relatively costly improvement will be necessary eventually to bring it up to the capacity of the rest of the route.

A new route has been provided to eliminate the existing bottleneck in Wellington Street, St. Kilda, and the route then continues along Queen’s Road and Hanna Street. Its connection also to Route 28 will facilitate the movement of traffic to the port, the western suburbs and Geelong.

Route 27 is the main outlet to the bayside suburbs and the beaches beyond. The scheme provides for elimination of the botdeneck in High Street, St. Kilda, to provide a highway 198 feet wide from the Yarra to Gardenvale.

It then continues through Brighton as a deviation of the Nepean Highway to link up at South Road with Route 26, a Country Roads Board project designed to carry the heavy holiday traffic past the seaside suburbs to beyond Frankston.

The proposals being illustrated in this diagram.

So what ended up happening?

Disputes between the St Kilda City Council and the State Government saw the grand grade separation plans shelved, with a temporary roundabout opened in 1955 and made permanent a year later. But road projects never get cancelled – only delayed – with the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) building the current network of underpasses in 1966-1970, as well as the widening of the Princes Highway (Route 23 in 1954) and Nepean Highway (Route 27).

Footnote: failed landscaping

The completed St Kilda Junction has so inhospitable that it took a decade for plants to successfully take hold – from the 1979 CRB Annual Report.

St Kilda Junction was reconstructed almost 10 years ago to overcome the serious traffic problems of the then existing junction.

Previous attempts to improve the aesthetics of the new junction area were not successful because of the harsh environmental conditions. Any trees and shrubs planted in the area are required to withstand the wind that is funnelled along the approach roads,the pollutants from the heavy traffic flows and the coastal environment as well as being able to find sufficient moisture in the large paved area.

A scheme was implemented during the year which appears to be successful in overcoming the problems. The scheme utilises a combination of bluestone walls and decorative bluestone paving with both plane trees and native spotted gums, together with shrubs and ground cover plants planted in large raised planting beds. Tree holes of one cubic metre each have been excavated and filled with fertile soil, and a drip feed irrigation system has been installed.

The landscape treatment is in harmony with the various road elements of the junction and integrates the junction visually with both the plane tree avenue in St Kilda Road and the newer plantations in Nepean Highway.

The gum trees are well established 40 years later, but the shrubs seem to have gone.

Further reading

• Car is King – Almost by Christopher Cody

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